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Welcome to the Candida Page
As we have time to add to this resource, it will be expanded, and further explained. As it appears below, this article was written as a brief introduction to what can be done about Candida in an effort to help people suffering to go about healing correctly without making mistakes that will set them further back than where they started. There is so much misinformation on the net (as we all know) it seems important to make this information available, even in it's short and rather rough form.
Disclaimer: We are not medical practitioners, and none of this information is to be construed as medical advice. Any healing protocol should be adopted only under the supervision of a qualified medical professional. Use this information at your own risk. This page contains affiliate links which help support the growing body of information on this site and keep our prices low. When you click affiliate links, the prices you pay if you purchase are the same as if you don't click, but we get paid a little bit for the advertising. Thank you for your support.
The Gut and Psychology Syndrome
by Dr. Natasha Campbell McBride is an excellent resource for explaining gut dysbiosis and outlining a program that will heal it and restore normal function. There are some limitations depending upon the real cause of the problem, and in the case of Candida, some adjustments need to be made to the GAPS protocol. Read the entire GAPS book, and then design a program for yourself based on what you learn and already know, and some key points from this article, by Karen Ross:
Candida diets (at least the one I did) have some really good aspects, and when combined with the GAPS diet, offer a real basis of permanent healing, maintained with the dietary lifestyle changes of eating real food, including anaerobically fermented food.
Those that suffer from Candida often erroneously believe that if they can stop eating refined sugar that they will eventually starve the Candida out, and then it will all be okay. This approach to fixing the problem is part of the problem. That's why they keep getting symptoms with a small amount of a fruit sugar. It's just ramped down it's metabolism to wait for some sugar. It's still alive and well. Every time it eats, it will be horrible for you.
If you starve out Candida for long enough, it will go dormant, and you could eat a little sugar without an immediate reaction. However, two or three servings of sugars over two or three days and you’re right back to where you started because the dormant Candida has come back to life in full force in the presence of something to eat. Meanwhile, it’s adapting it’s metabolism. Candida will actually mutate to metabolize proteins eventually if starvation methods are the main approach. It seems to work short term, but it will rear it's ugly head with every little bite of anything it likes. It is also steering cravings. When it eats, it gives off chemicals (including mycotoxins) which make the candida patient ill. Some of these chemicals stimulate the vagus nerve to cause cravings. It is actually the microbes in the gut that control the brain to like or dislike what we eat, and what we desire. Hence the phrase “acquired taste”. The more we eat a particular food, the more it tends to grow on us.
When I was in the early stages of my Candida fight, cooked carrots were enough to send me over the top with horrific symptoms. So bad I wanted to use steroids to manage it. Unfortunately, Candida will continue to mutate until it can metabolize protein, which is a deadly situation, because at that point there is nothing you can eat that will not feed it, and it continues to grow and spread in the body and there is widespread thought and even some preliminary studies that show that it is the precursor to cancers of all kinds.
I was determined to find the cause for my symptoms, and fix it, (this all before I found out I lived in a moldy house) and I believe that saved my life. But I digress.
I followed a regimen to knock it back (remember, once it's colonizing, you'd better respect it forever), eat so that my gut was not hospitable to it (keep it knocked back), repopulate the gut so there wasn't room for it (as you kill it off, there must be naked landscapes in there), and keep it driven into dormancy (it leaks out of the gut and parks all over the body, just waiting...).
Ok. Regimen to knock it back: Zero refined sugar, and low natural sugar (no fruit, no cooked high carb vegetables), and anaerobically fermented vegetables with every meal. Fermented vegetables as snacks. (Work your way up, not too much too soon.) Allow the gut to reproduce and repopulate it’s permanent resident probiotic bacterial species. Ingest lots (start slowly) of supporting probiotic microorganisms, which really provide the environment for the resident bacteria to flourish and do their work.
Klaire Labs has a fantastic product called
Interfase
which breaks the biodome on the yeast (a protective shielding) and makes it easy to kill. I took one with my anti-fungals every time I used them. Manage the dosage of anti-fungals just below the die-off symptom threshold, and increase vitamin C to help with symptoms when you overdo it. Overdoing anti-fungals is not useful and just makes you miserable. The trick is to kill it slowly and steadily, and repopulate as you go, and healing your gut in the meantime with the broth. One of my favorite antifungals is my goldenseal root tincture which I make, and more than three drops a day would send me over the edge.
Rotate your anti-fungals every 10 days. Candida will adapt to most anti-fungals and using five or six different ones prevents adaptation. I used rotating homemade organic goldenseal tincture, caprylic acid, garlic, oil of oregano, Pau d' Arco. There are many other organic potent antifungals available, so it is important to find a few and figure out where that fine line is between ineffective and massive die-off that isn't useful for anything except to make you miserable. Many sources agree that caprylic adic, garlic, oil of oregano are three of the most potent available (which is not necessarily good). I had to use a very very small dosing of each of these. I would experiment with very limited dosing and increase until finding the threshold. It's quite a bit of trial and error in the beginning, but it's worth it to take it easy and work your way up.
I purchased a lot of expensive anti-candida things (three-lac, five-lac come to immediate mind) and they didn't help me at all. The above protocol and a careful diet has brought me to where I can have a slice of wedding cake or mom's berry pie without regret, after a long time (six or seven years). I would say that the victory took about two years, and that I still couldn't eat the pie without some response, until I got rid of my moldy house. Then I was victorious within about six weeks, and felt a lot better quicker than that.
Now that I'm better, and since I am not gluten sensitive, and I am even able to eat copious amounts of real whole grain sourdough bread, and some other things I won't admit to.
As for GAPS and Candida, I believe some parts of the GAPS protocol don't work well for the candida patient because they include high carb cooked vegetables right from the start. I think it really depends on what all the issues are, and the program has to be individualized. I might adapt GAPS to include the copious amounts of broth to heal the gut, and include other essential healing foods not included on GAPS.
As for ferments, they are essential to turn around gut balance. It is further essential to anaerobically ferment, because the molds and yeasts that proliferate in mason jar ferments or open crock ferments can send a Candida patient over the edge. Anaerobic ferments are incredibly healing and do a fantastic job of turning around the microbiome of the gut with the help of the Interfase and antifungals.
Many sources state that SBOs are "colonizing" units, meaning that they would take up permanent residence in the lining of the colon. There is no research that indicates that this is the case, but rather they come in, stay and multiply for up to two weeks, and then are no longer present.
Most transient bacteria will reproduce in the colon for up to one week, and then be flushed out.
Little seems to be known about permanent colonization of the gut, which starts in utero, and must be an ongoing process as we collect organisms from the environment that are perfectly suited to help us with digestion.
It is important to know that the transient species that we ingest from fermented foods and supplements are a critical part of the healing process, because the colonizing bacteria require their support to maintain a healthy gut. Traditionally fermented foods were a part of every meal prior to industrialization , and to support gut health, should be reintroduced gently and then continued throughout life.
The existing resident bacteria will have a chance to flourish and repopulate the gut when the gut wall is repaired (no more leaky gut) and the Candida is brought under control. Getting Candida under control is much more difficult than keeping it under control. The keys to keeping Candida under control are as follows, not in any particular order, and are important to follow during candida elimination as well as maintenance:
1. Maintaining proper probiotic balance through fermented foods
2. Not eating foods that contribute to ill gut health such as refined foods
3. Heal/maintain gut through bone broth and other healing foods
4. Clean environment (get out of mold)
5. Proper hydration with non-chlorinated/fluoridated water
6. Adequate rest
7. Supporting detox pathways
Of course there is so much more to say about antibiotics, hormonal birth control, stress, natural childbirth, chlorine and fluoride in drinking water, food additives, just to name a few important issues. But we had to start somewhere, and really wanted to empower you with the high points, and at least give you a starting place.
John Herron and Laura Christenson Barker have written a very good protocol for dealing with Candida and SIBO. I feel very strongly that completely anaerobic ferments are essential to wining this fight, especially when addressing fungal problems such as Candida overgrowth, and the Protocol may be a little bit light on this point.
We link to this document, because it has so much of value that will help you, but please do not think for one moment that high-salt-leaky-vessel-whey ferments are anything but vastly inferior to the healing power of the food you will make at home in a Probiotic Jar, and may actually do more harm than good. Not to say that you cannot make a sealing glass vessel with an Airlock yourself, but plastic is air permeable, so whatever you choose, go with glass, and with a properly sized hole and food-grade grommet. The Gut Health Protocol
Please don't hesitate to contact us if you have questions about fermenting in The Probiotic Jar.
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